In a stern rebuke to the Himachal Pradesh government, the Supreme Court questioned the state’s commitment to supporting its athletes after it denied employment to a 2014 Asian Games gold medalist under the sports quota. During a hearing on Thursday, Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih expressed their disappointment over the treatment of Pooja Thakur, the athlete in question.
Pooja Thakur, who clinched a gold medal in kabaddi at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, and a silver medal at the 2015 National Games, faced significant bureaucratic hurdles in securing employment. Despite her sports achievements, Thakur was forced to endure years of bureaucratic delays in her pursuit of a promised government job.
“This is how you encourage sports persons? Somebody won a gold medal in the Asian games of 2014; your chief minister should have a pragmatic approach…This is the approach of the state while dealing with the sports persons,” the bench remarked during the proceedings.
The Supreme Court subsequently dismissed an appeal by the Himachal Pradesh government against a High Court order that directed Thakur’s appointment as an excise and taxation officer from the date she initially applied in July 2015. The High Court had previously upheld a single judge’s decision, which granted Thakur all consequential benefits from the application date, including seniority.
The division bench of the High Court criticized the state’s reluctance to appoint Thakur to a Class-I post after she filed two original applications, indicating that the authorities were displeased with her insistence on fulfilling the promise made to her.
“It is highly unreasonable on the part of the appellants to seek to deny the benefit granted by the learned single judge to the 1st respondent of being appointed against the post of excise and taxation officer in the Department of Excise and Taxation from the date she submitted application to the then chief minister in July, 2015,” the High Court noted.
